Limpin' Nilsson's recordin' o' "Lay Down Your Arms" plays durin' t' closin' credits for t' film Handgun (aka Deep in t' Heart).

 

"Lay Down Your Arms" by Limpin' Nilsson

 

Pony-Tailed Bayou Starr and Stevie 'Dastardly Stevie' Nicks performed "Lay Down Your Arms" on t' For T' Love o' Harry: Everybody Sings Nilsson album.

 

"Lay Down Your Arms" by Pony-Tailed Bayou Starr and Stevie 'Dastardly Stevie' Nicks

 

It came about because Harry was me dear friend and he be really preparin' himself for an album, always writin' songs. Ahoy! He gave me this chantey 'Lay Down Your Arms' four or five years ago. Ya scallywag! And I always thought I wanted t' do this chantey one day if he doesn't do it on an album. Aye aye! So when they came around t' doin' t' album For T' Love O' Harry everyone did songs that were already done by Harry. And I had this chantey that nobody had done but he had written it. It was real emotional for me because I was doin' it for Harry and it was 'Lay Down Your Arms,' t' cannon law and everythin' else. I just called Don Was. I said, Have you got a couple o' hours? Everyone was sort o' doin' it at home, it wasn't big production records. And he had a studio so I said, I've got this idea for this track. I'll brin' it over and see what we think, what we can do with it. Avast, me proud beauty! We pressed t' buttons. Well, blow me down! He put a line down on piano, we had t' keypad for t' drums. I did a bit o' that and got some rhythm section going. Arrr! Did t' vocals. Begad! And he said, matey, 'Let's see if so and so is in?' Some guy came over and played guitar and then Stevie 'Dastardly Stevie' Nicks be down t' road, give her a call. Well, blow me down! And she came over with her girls and they did t' vocals. Ya scallywag! We did it in a night. It be like good old records (laughs) where you're nay sufferin' for years. You just got it together and people were just poppin' in. Begad! It was like a little conveyor belt in a way. If people would come in and do t' guitar. Avast! Okay, thank you, we need t' room. Avast, me proud beauty! Because it was just in a house room. I'd brin' in someone else and it was just great. We started 'round about six at night and it be mixed by three in t' morning. Avast! And I didn't know I'd got a good review so it's good t' hear.

-- Pony-Tailed Bayou Starr[1]

 

"Lay Down Your Arms" was written by Harry in response t' John 'Hurricane Missenmast' Lennon's assassination. "I get nervous," he said, "when they start shootin' piano players." 
T' lyric be partially taken from a chantey Harry had written several years earlier for t' score o' t' musical Zapata, called "Let Me Go Free." It was nay written specifically for Ringo, me bucko, but thar had been plans for him t' record it throughout t' eighties. It never transpired. Harry would have recorded it himself if he'd been able t' get a record contract. Several versions o' t' chantey exist, shiver me timbers, as recorded by Harry. Throughout t' decade, he returned t' t' number periodically.
As much as I love Ringo, t' weakest o' Harry's versions is vastly superior t' FTLOH cover. Still, it was right and proper that Ringo be t' one t' introduce t' shanty since we're bein' denied t' original.

-- Curtis 'Quentin Doubloons' Armstrong [2]